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Saturday, December 25, 2010

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - What Did You Get?

"What gift that you received for Christmas is your favorite for genealogy purposes? Book, magazine, hardware, software, website subscription, research time - what was it, and how will it affect your genealogy research?"

I got the ultimate genea-wish granted for Christmas. A brick wall came down!

My favorite genealogy related gift came from a stranger in the form of an email on Christmas day. In a blog post on 1 May 2010 about my Weeks line, I mentioned that James Weeks "married Delinda (maiden name unknown) bef 1811 in Warren County, Ohio." That was over six months ago but today that little blurb paid off big time.

James Weeks and Delinda (maiden name unknown to me until today) were my 4th great-grandparents. I've never found so much as a tiny clue as to Delinda's maiden name. James and Delinda lived in Livingston County, Kentucky and Pope County, Illinois. James died about 1827 and Delinda then married Elisha Shaw in Pope County.

According to the email, Delinda was the daughter of Nehemiah Younger. Not only did the sender provide her father's name, he outlined information in Nehemiah's probate record (filed in Washington County, Pennsylvania) that identifies his daughter as Delinda Weeks, wife of James Weeks. There's apparently a document in the probate record (notarized in Pope County) that shows James and Delinda Weeks appointed Job Weeks as their attorney. Job was James' father so there's no doubt this is the same Delinda Weeks! (BTW, James and Delinda's oldest son was named Nehemiah.)